Art Modell Dies

 
sorry , but its hard to blame modell for the browns moving --this was his business and the city was bending over for the cavs and the tribe but would do nothing for the mistake on the lake stadium --- his hand was forced even though it was probably killin g him to move the team .... and arthur b modell should be in the pro football hall of fame ...in fact now that he has passed , i beleieve he will be soon
 
As time passes, it becomes more and more evident just how indifferent Mayor Mike White and the powers-that-be in Cleveland were to Modell's call for a new stadium. They took him for granted and he bolted.

This isn't to forgive Modell - hell, I'll NEVER forgive him for leaving - but the all-in blame I assigned to him has been tempered knowing his threats weren't taken seriously. Does this absolve him? Hell, no. He could have stayed, dangled the Baltimore offer as leverage, and likely could have gotten what he wanted.

That being said, he's way over-rated as an owner. Constant sell-outs for over 30 years in an 80,000 seat stadium, and he has to take out a loan to pay Andre Rison?

And I'll reveal my own pettiness here: while I'm not rejoicing that he died, there is a sense of satisfaction that he didn't get elected to the Hall of Fame while he was alive.
 
Owning an NFL team in Cleveland is a license to print money....Modell lost it consistently. Not to mention the fact that he fired 2 of the greatest coaches in NFL history...

Good riddance.
 
Casual Observer said:
Only in a socialist state like Cleveland would people be mad at someone for making great business moves.
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And what great business move was that? The move to Baltimore?

He was given a sweetheart deal in Maryland, and after several years sold his majority stake in the Ravens. So much for that theory.
 
Casual Observer said:
Only in a socialist state like Cleveland would people be mad at someone for making great business moves.
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You might want to read GencoEd's post right above yours. Yes, Modell brought some things to the league but to imply he was "great" with his "business" moves is laughable.
 
Do you understand how easy it is to make money in the NFL? Do you understand it is even easier when you sellout your stadium and have the largest fan organization in the league?
 
Casual Observer said:
Only in a socialist state like Cleveland would people be mad at someone for making great business moves.
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If he was such a great business mind, he would have leveraged a new stadium in Cleveland, but he didn't. He had to have Al Lerner find a deal for him in Baltimore to save his . Then, even with a sweetheart deal in Baltimore, he somehow finds a way to blow that a few years later...goes to the NFL for a loan...and Paul Tagliabue winds up forcing the guy to get a partner, Steven Bischotti, to save Modell from himself AGAIN, with the provisio that Modell gradually turns over control to the other owner. In other words, the NFL finally told the "great businessman" Art Modell to ride off into the sunset because he was the only owner stupid enough to lose money on an NFL franchise.
 
Art was one of the last owners who derived the majority of his income from the NFL. This put him in a bad spot in the '90s when the League opened up free agency and before the insane TV $s flowed into the pockets of owners so he had to leverage any source of income and he felt tapped out at the stadium level which at that time was the main source that an owner could derive at the local level. His major flaw was allowing the Baltimore mayor to force him to take or leave that deal instead of using it as leverage to gain what Lerner did 3 years later. If he really loved Cleveland that is what he would have done but alas he needed $s ASAP and the Baltimore deal was his best way of gaining them so he could be competitive in free agency and still make a living. What is ironic is the other owners forced him to sell the team and cut Dave out of the picture in the end because of his bad financial situation. That killed him more then anything else...
 
Auggie said:
Art was one of the last owners who derived the majority of his income from the NFL. This put him in a bad spot in the '90s when the League opened up free agency and before the insane TV $s flowed into the pockets of owners so he had to leverage any source of income and he felt tapped out at the stadium level which at that time was the main source that an owner could derive at the local level. His major flaw was allowing the Baltimore mayor to force him to take or leave that deal instead of using it as leverage to gain what Lerner did 3 years later. If he really loved Cleveland that is what he would have done but alas he needed $s ASAP and the Baltimore deal was his best way of gaining them so he could be competitive in free agency and still make a living. What is ironic is the other owners forced him to sell the team and cut Dave out of the picture in the end because of his bad financial situation. That killed him more then anything else...
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You might find some who will shed tears for Art, but I doubt you will find many who will ever find sympathy for David.
 
bedevil said:
As time passes, it becomes more and more evident just how indifferent Mayor Mike White and the powers-that-be in Cleveland were to Modell's call for a new stadium. They took him for granted and he bolted.

This isn't to forgive Modell - hell, I'll NEVER forgive him for leaving - but the all-in blame I assigned to him has been tempered knowing his threats weren't taken seriously. Does this absolve him? Hell, no. He could have stayed, dangled the Baltimore offer as leverage, and likely could have gotten what he wanted.

That being said, he's way over-rated as an owner. Constant sell-outs for over 30 years in an 80,000 seat stadium, and he has to take out a loan to pay Andre Rison?

And I'll reveal my own pettiness here: while I'm not rejoicing that he died, there is a sense of satisfaction that he didn't get elected to the Hall of Fame while he was alive.
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I thought he was initially offered a spot at the table when Gateway was still in it's early concepts -- this was way before the final design of Jacobs Field and Gund Arena. The idea was to either build a multipurpose football/baseball facility or two separate places next to each other, ala Kansas City. I remember a quote in the paper, something like "We're not planning to move up there [Gateway]" -- this is what morphed into the Cavs getting a new arena and Modell being 'ignored' by the city.
 
OhioBobcatFan06 said:
Do you understand how easy it is to make money in the NFL? Do you understand it is even easier when you sellout your stadium and have the largest fan organization in the league?
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Just to clarify....
Having the alleged largest fan organization doesn't translate into largest fan base.
 
MontetheCarlo said:
Just to clarify....
Having the alleged largest fan organization doesn't translate into largest fan base.
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I agree. The franchise's popularity has always been overhyped. There were not constant sell outs. Even in the Kosar years there were always several home games blacked out. I would guess that the Browns only sold out the old stadium 50% of the games played over the course of their history, and probably only two-thirds of the home games played since the 1970 merger. There are a good number of fan clubs outside of Ohio, but a lot of that is due to how many people have left Cleveland over the years. There is no current waiting list for season tickets, either.
 
Dave K. said:
I thought he was initially offered a spot at the table when Gateway was still in it's early concepts -- this was way before the final design of Jacobs Field and Gund Arena. The idea was to either build a multipurpose football/baseball facility or two separate places next to each other, ala Kansas City. I remember a quote in the paper, something like "We're not planning to move up there [Gateway]" -- this is what morphed into the Cavs getting a new arena and Modell being 'ignored' by the city.
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The Cavs were always in the Gateway discussion so that it could become a year round destination, Indians in the summer and Cavs/Concerts/Circus/Ice Show in the cold weather months. Out door NFL stadiums are a bad deal for a city because all you get is 11 dates a year for the primary tennant plus maybe a NCAA or HS game and a stadium conert. At most 15-20 dates of use a year.
 
Auggie said:
The Cavs were always in the Gateway discussion so that it could become a year round destination, Indians in the summer and Cavs/Concerts/Circus/Ice Show in the cold weather months. Out door NFL stadiums are a bad deal for a city because all you get is 11 dates a year for the primary tennant plus maybe a NCAA or HS game and a stadium conert. At most 15-20 dates of use a year.
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The early Gateway discussions were for an indoor stadium, but by the time things got moving the trend was for baseball-only stadiums, and I don't think Art wanted to move off the lakefront, either.
 
cjb56 said:
I agree. The franchise's popularity has always been overhyped. There were not constant sell outs. Even in the Kosar years there were always several home games blacked out. I would guess that the Browns only sold out the old stadium 50% of the games played over the course of their history, and probably only two-thirds of the home games played since the 1970 merger. There are a good number of fan clubs outside of Ohio, but a lot of that is due to how many people have left Cleveland over the years. There is no current waiting list for season tickets, either.
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The reson the old stadium didn't sell out was because 20,000 seats were just plain horrible. Everything in the lower deck next to the baseball diamond were at a low pitch so you could not see much and when the suites were built in the '70s it made viewinig any pass or kick in the lower deck higher rows worthless. I think TVs were added and many folks just sat there and watched them instead of the live action on the field. Dog Pound was the best seat in the house.
 
Other than maybe the Cowboys, there was no bigger fanbase in the NFL t that time than the Browns.
 
cjb56 said:
The early Gateway discussions were for an indoor stadium, but by the time things got moving the trend was for baseball-only stadiums, and I don't think Art wanted to move off the lakefront, either.
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Modell had wanted to build a new stadium on property he owned in Strongsville, but could never get the financing.
 
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